


Just Before Unfreezing

by MissIzzy



Category: Black Panther (2018), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Ficlet, Gen, Post-Black Panther (2018)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-30
Updated: 2018-03-30
Packaged: 2019-04-15 23:37:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14151855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissIzzy/pseuds/MissIzzy
Summary: A task accomplished.





	Just Before Unfreezing

It might not have taken a whole month, if Shuri hadn’t had to spend part of that fleeing and then fighting for her life. And that was hardly the only other thing she’d been doing. Still, as a single project with a set end result, it was definitely the one she’d spent the most hours on.

Bucky Barnes had stayed frozen a couple of days after they were done, just so Steve Rogers could be there when he woke; they’d known both men would want that. He’d been discreet, coming and going, even when he’d brought a quartet of sprung superhero prisoners back with him. It was probably just as well he’d been off rescuing them during the whole thing that had happened with Killmonger. It was too likely that had he been in Wakanda, he would’ve done something heroic and reckless and stupid to make things worse.

They were also all very grateful Killmonger had never gotten around to learning he had the Winter Soldier in his power. It was pretty obvious what he would’ve done with him.

Natasha Romanov had brought Clint Barton’s family to Wakanda about a week after he’d arrived there himself, and another week after that had taken them all away. They’d seen or heard nothing about them since; they were hoping no news was good news. Scott Lang too was gone, apparently fallen in with his girlfriend and her father. Sam Wilson usually went around with Rogers, and was coming back with him. So when her brother came in, it was only Wanda Maximoff sitting with Shuri, looking anxiously between her and Barnes. On seeing T’Challa, she jumped up and did a vague European curtsy, ever the most polite of the group.

“Langa filled me in on the way up here,” her brother told Shuri. “I didn’t understand everything he said, but the involuntary impulses are now out of his brain?”

“With very little loss otherwise. Not none, sadly, but only a few memories. Nothing important to him. He’ll still recognize Rogers. But,” she grinned, “there is a chance he might not recognize us.”

“We’ll introduce ourselves, then.” T’Challa walked up to the glass and considered the still sleeping Barnes. “Shuri,” he said, hesitantly, “did you mind doing this? It’s the biggest thing I’ve ever asked you to do, I think.”

“Mind?!” Shuri laughed. “Really? You finally brought me something that was a real challenge.” She hadn’t felt so exhilarated since that time a couple years back she and the hacking team had needed to go through the leaked S.H.I.E.L.D. files and erase all the mentions of Wakanda and the records of the various agents they’d planted in the organization over the decades. (Kept S.H.I.E.L.D. from actually know their secrets, but they hadn’t wanted to take any chances). And even that had mostly been exciting because of how fast they’d needed to do it.

But this. There’d been moments where she’d even feared she wouldn’t be able to do it. That feeling hadn’t been fun, but it had made the success feel better. Shuri was proud of all her accomplishments, but sometimes they had felt too easy. When one night about a week back, she’d found herself collapsing into her chair at two in the morning, exchanging grins with the two people working with her because  _they’d finally figured the trick out,_  it had been a completely new sense of triumph. She’d slept the entire next day, and woken up still feeling ridiculously happy with herself.

Not to mention everything they’d ended up learning about the human brain. Shuri didn’t think they’d ever know everything about it, but she wondered how close they might now be. She now really wanted to do another complete redesign of her brother’s suit.

The room’s intercom chimed. “Rogers is calling.” T’Challa tapped to answer. “Nearly here, Captain?”

“Just about, Your Majesty. So it’s really done?”

“It is,” said Wanda. “And that scientist you wanted to talk to, Dr. Langa? He’s here too. He can finally explain everything to you.”

“That is,” Shuri added, “if you can understand him.”

“Don’t know about that, Your Highness,” said Rogers, and Shuri could see that sheepish smile of his in her head. “All I know if you’ve worked me a miracle.” He sounded like he was getting emotional already.

That, too, was something Shuri had come to understand this past month, when it had been her own brother waking up before her eyes, miraculously restored to her.

Still, she had to say, “Not a miracle, Captain Rogers. Just a lot of work.


End file.
